2023 is a big year for the horror video game niche. Even though we have gotten remasters of Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, there is still more to look forward to, one of which is Alan Wake 2. The sequel is finally arriving 13 years after Remedy Entertainment released its cult-classic predecessor all the way back in 2010.
Ahead of the game’s release later this year, Sam Lake, Remedy Entertainment’s creative director, spoke to Eurogamer about the horror genre and the Alan Wake games.
During the conversation, Lake revealed that Stephen King, widely considered the King of Horror, served as one of the main influences of the game. Lake’s comments are in line with a report we published last month about the game’s multiple influences, which also includes True Detective, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Fargo.
Unlike those other materials, King’s influence goes beyond the intangible. During the opening scenes of the first game, the titular character engages in a monologue, where he says the following words, “Stephen King once wrote that ‘Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear.'”
Lake revealed they were allowed to use the Stephen King quote for a nominal fee of $1.You would probably think that the quote comes from one of King’s many popular horror novels. If you did, you would be wrong.
The author, widely considered the King of Horror, wrote those words in a 2008 article he wrote for Entertainment Weekly.
In Lake’s words, “Creating the original Alan Wake, I really, really desperately wanted a quote from him [Stephen King] to start it off. It’s my understanding he wanted $1 for us to get the rights to use it. [It was] so very generous.”
Given the 75-year-old author’s reputation in all things horror, we are sure he could have refused their request to use the quote or even asked for a large sum of money as payment.
He would have been justified if he did either of those but instead chose to charge a nominal fee. This makes us agree with Lake’s assessment that King was generous.
By the way, Alan Wake II will only get a digital release. This decision generated a lot of backlash from fans of the IP, which we understand. Remedy Entertainment tried to manage the situation and provided an explanation for the decision. While we doubt it will make much difference to fans who were really looking forward to owning a physical copy of the long-awaited game, we do believe there is some logic to it.
It remains to be seen if Remedy will change its mind in the lead-up to the game’s release or sometime after, but we know that it will be out by October.
